November-December 1920

To:S. P. SEREDA

Published:First published in 1945 inLenin Miscellany XXXV.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1976,

      Moscow,Volume 45,

      page47.Translated:Yuri SdobnikovTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet ArchiveYou may freely copy, distribute,
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ComradeSereda:

Iconsider the articles by Michelson, which you have
sent me, of exceptional
importance.[2]

Itis necessary:

1)Tosend them over at once toIzvestiaandPravda(having corrected the style, put them together into one
article and edited).

2)Tosupply an afterword byyou: conclusions (practical
conclusions).

3)Tosend a concise extract toROSTA[1]for circulation
in Russia.

4)Toinclude all this without fail α) in your printed
report to the Congress of Soviets on 20.XII, β) in your oral
report (the gist andpracticalconclusions).

Allthis should be prepared in advance, and the
specialists must be made to perform all the works preparatory to
your reportin good time.

Withcommunist greetings,Lenin

[1]TelegraphAgency of Russia.—Ed.

[2]Inhis articles sent to S. P. Sereda Prof. V. A. Michelson of
the Petrovsko-Razumovskaya Agricultural Academy (now the
Timiryazev Agricultural Academy in Moscow), Basing himself
on scientific data, wrote about the periodical succession of dry
and rainy years. Predicting the advent of an early drought,
he said it could be combated by higher labour productivity
both in industry and agriculture. On Lenin’s instructions,
Michelson’s article was published inIzvestia VTslKNo. 258
on November 17, 1920, under the title “Important
Warning”, and the following day the paper carried Sereda’s article,
“About the Article ‘Important Warning’”, which dealt with the
concrete measures necessary to prevent a crop failure.

OnNovember 25, 1920, Sereda wrote to Lenin: “Vladimir
Ilyich, I have carried out your instructions concerning the
publication of Prof. Michelson’s article on the coming drought
(IzvestiaNo. 258) and my own item about his article (IzvestiaNo. 259,
which I enclose).

“Ialso sent them toPravda, but they were not published
becauseIzvestiahad carried both earlier.” A short note was sent to
the Telegraph Agency of Russia (Central Party Archives of the
Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the C.P.S.U. Central
Committee).